Our Post-Pandemic Lifestyle: More Cobwebs? Less Time in the Kitchen? Sheltering at Home Week 35

November 14, 2020 Sheltering at Home Week 35

What will life be like post-pandemic?

I’m thinking — a whole lot simpler. Thanks to the pandemic and its constraints, I’m taking a second look at some of my gotta-dos.

Like:

• Weekly restaurant dinners with more wine than needed.
• A cobweb-free garage.
• A haircut every five weeks, without fail.
• A brow tint every five weeks, without fail
• Gourmet meals for guests that take all day to prepare and a long evening to execute.

Practicing for a Post-Pandemic Lifestyle

I’ve learned over the past eight months that I can let go of some of those tyrannical gotta-dos:

• Restaurant meals are fattening. (I’ve lost four pounds since March.) Wine gives me license to eat too much, (I’ve lost four pounds since March.)
• Cobwebs are in the eye of the beholder. So are rings around the toilet bowl. Look the other way and pay attention the stuff you really want to do.
• Embrace messy. My austere Judy Dench haircut has morphed into a Dolly Parton free-for-all. Lesson from the coronavirus: it is not necessary to be in control of your life, let alone every hair on your head.
• Instead of hosting those hours-long gourmet dinners, offer friends a simple evening of dessert and wine on the deck (or in the dining room, once the evil microbe has been banished). Enjoy the conversation. Notice the sun, making its way toward the horizon. The stars. The sweet night air. A train whistle in the distance. Convivial chatter from a neighboring deck. A fly or two. A sensible bedtime.

Madcap hair? Dessert on the deck? Are these the gifts of the coronavirus? Has all this sheltering at home brought a little wisdom our way? Have we gotten it through our heads, finally, that our friends and loved ones don’t need a perfectly groomed hostess and a pot of cioppino to make them happy — they just need some time with us?

As for that eyebrow tint, get one. What’s a face without eyebrows?

Thinking about decluttering your house, now that you are in it 24/7? Here’s what happened to me when I tried that: “My Old Stuff. A Little Moldy, a Little Dusty, but Unlike Certain People, It’s Still With Me.”  Or are you just considering rearranging the furniture in your home office. Here are some thoughts on that: “Feng Shui Tips for the Bedroom and the Writing Room — Your Mother’s Not Allowed, and Neither Are the Kids.”